It is said that in the Babemba tribe of South Africa, when a person acts irresponsibly or unjustly, he is placed in the center of the village, alone and unfettered.

All work ceases, and every man, woman and child in the village gathers in a large circle around the accused individual. Then each person in the tribe speaks to the accused, one at a time, about all the good things the person in the center of the circle has done in his lifetime. Every incident, every experience that can be recalled with any detail and accuracy is recounted. All his positive attributes, good deeds, strengths and kindnesses are recited carefully and at length.

The tribal ceremony often lasts several days. At the end, the tribal circle is broken, a joyous celebration takes place, and the person is symbolically and literally welcomed back into the tribe.

I'm curious as to what you think of this approach to dealing with wrongdoers.

Apparently, from what I've got so far, they couldn't raise cattle due to tse-tse flies, and headmen were rather brutal (mutilations as punishments) before European contact (which apparently ruined what economy/status/control they had in the area before). I'm going to guess that the 'bolstering' that Walker refers to is a modern adaptation (not a bad one, but reading the stuff from 1920's and 30's doesn't sound so nice), and thus, perhaps not as anthropologically sound as an answer to 'How do we reclaim a proper relationship to the world?'

Then again, since it's a modern synthesis between Ba-Bemba cultural views with the (perhaps) less violent/more economic cultures of colonialism?